All the Stars Gathered Under the Stripes
by asymmetricalpasta03
Summary: A ragtag bunch of kids band together and invade...America's place! Their plans? Their identities...or rather, identity? Read inside to see what happens in the chapters placed around a special occasion.
1. Chapter 1

_Another story I may not finish. I know I'm way behind on the Vocaloid story, but I'm getting all these random plotlines now. If you want to see anymore of this, as always, reviews are welcome here._

* * *

I trudged home after another useless meeting of Congress. It sucked seriously: damn parties are more concerned with their next election and keeping up their extreme values more than what anybody actually gives a shit about. I often wished I could go back and run things like they used to. I used to stand for something great. I mean, I _am_ still pretty awesome, best country on Earth, if I may say so, but I really don't like any of my options for where I'm going, and taking my people with me.

So, back to my place. It was at least a clear afternoon. That was Monday, I think. I looked at the house and smirked. I'm proud of it, but at the moment, I wanted to be as far as possible from this. So, what was keeping me here? I straightened my back and threw open the door of my house. I was going to call up some friends and do some visiting.

Perhaps not.

I threw open the front door and was greeted with a wave of noise: bickering, yelling, a few non-threatening sounds.

Aw, are you kidding me?

A kid ran across the front threshold, looked no older than nine. He looked at me and ran off yelling, "Susan!" I had no clue who Susan was, but the noises stopped almost as soon as he said it. Three teenaged girls appeared at the doorway of the kitchen, all looking confused at first, which turned briefly to panic before all smiling in unison and saying, "Hi."

I had no response to this.

"What's up, man?" One of the blonde ones stepped forward.

"Uh…"

"He's looking at you like you broke in," said a voice from the stairs.

"Well, we didn't!" said the other blonde, glaring at him nastily.

"Wait: what?"

All four looked at me.

"You kids are trying to tell me you five just came right in and made yourselves at home in my house, _without_ breaking in?"

"Five?" the other girl, one with long curly brown hair, laughed.

"Hey, we knocked, bro," said the kid on the stairs. "And we were let in."

I made a few weird sounds, trying to find words, and finally settled upon, "By who?"

* * *

"How could you let _fifty random kids_ into the freaking house, bro?!" I said once in the basement, fuming and venting at Tony, who was ignoring me while playing Kingdom Hearts on the PS2. He let them all in for some unknown reason. He wouldn't tell me; all he did was nod when I asked angrily to confirm what Lina, one of the blondes, had told me.

Well, without feedback from him, my anger had a cork stuffed in it fairly quickly. So, I went into the kitchen and sat at the little island. Lina and her sister Carol were doing something they didn't want me to see. There were two brown haired girls working off to the side on a drawing.

"Who are you two, again?" I asked, pointing at them when they looked up.

"I'm Georgia; this is Virginia." Virginia didn't look very pleased with how Georgia was handling it. She gave a scowl at her which swept over to me and back.

"Ever plan on leaving?"

"Yes. We have to go home, just like you do," Carol said from the stove.

"Where do you live?"

She turned to look at me funnily. "You don't get it yet?" Virginia said from the floor.

"North! Watch the pot, damn it!" Lina yelled.

"North?"

"Yeah…" said a little boy who just walked in. I looked to him at my elbow.

"Carol is North. Lina is South. I confuse them, too."

"What?"

"Oh, for the love of – " Virginia snapped. She went out and came back with nine other kids. They looked the oldest of the bunch. I stared blankly at them, still not seeing the point. Ten teenagers in a row...still standing in my house, where they really didn't belong. Two girls, eight boys...Georgia and one of the blondes stood at the other end. Now there were twelve. I counted them all, rather conspicuously: the blonde pointed at her identical sister when I got to her end.

"And Carol, with the pot."

"Not a clue, yet?" Virginia said, fists on her hips, sounding absolutely furious. Afraid of what she'd do next, I shook my head. "Good Lord, you're thick." She took an object from behind her back: a hat…a tri-cornered hat.

"That's neat." I had one in the closet just like it. Or perhaps she stole it.

"It's real." Yeah: she stole it.

"How did a fifteen-year-old girl get a hat like that?" I said in the least accusatory fashion I could.

"It's mine," said one of the boys.

"Yours? How'd you get it?"

He smiled where Virginia scowled. "I think it was 'standard issue' when I fought in the war."

"What?" He was far too young to have seen war, at least in this day! And, what's more, he wouldn't have been around to have fought when soldiers wore those! "What's he talking about?" I asked them, sweeping through each face (though purposely avoiding Virginia's).

"Wow. I thought you'd be a bit happier to see your original thirteen," said the boy on the way right.

I stayed silent a minute more. Virginia looked like she wanted nothing more than to floor me. Then it finally hit me like a ton of bricks.

"What?"


	2. Chapter 2

_Well, I got a follower on this, so I must be doing something right! Thus, the continuation. This chapter is to sort of let this whole thing sink into the main character, who still doesn't quite believe it's real. That's the long, nice way of saying I wrote a filler chapter. R&R_

* * *

"Bro…why the f*ck didn't you tell me I had kids?" I lamented to Tony while he continued to play and ignore me.

States. My f*cking states. There were fifty…even the girls told me their names and I didn't catch on. New questions arose, but I thought of two in particular.

"Why didn't I know about them?" and "Why are they here?"

* * *

I went back into my small sitting room. Sure, I'd like a big space, but I never thought I'd need it with just me and my alien dude (who spends all his time in the basement with the PSP anyway). The same gathering from the kitchen was there: eight boys, five girls. All of them looked up when I walked in the room.

"Don't mind me," I muttered. "Just passing through."

I went to the phone I left on the table in the kitchen. I scrolled through my contacts, trying to think of someone to talk to. I decided to bug one of the few people who would still talk to me. Unfortunately, he was busy.

"Hey," I said at the beep. "Listen, dude, call me back when you get this, I need to tell you something." I hung up.

"Who was that?"

I turned. One of the boys was standing in the archway.

"No one."

He looked at me like he thought I was lying to him. "Yeah. Anyway, if you're not busy, you can come talk to us." He sarcastically added as he turned to lead me into the room, "I bet there are a nice few statements Virginia would like to say to you."

So, I had little choice but to lean against the wall in clear view of all twenty-six eyes.

"Well?" I said to the one who invited me. "What is this about?"

He wouldn't speak. "Not much." I turned to the voice. The fifth of my female former colonies spoke. "We're here to just talk."

A weird scoff came from my right.

"Oh, put a sock in it, Virginia," scolded one of her brothers.

"Don't tell me what to do, _little brother_!" Virginia yelled, getting to her feet.

"Oh, god," North said, rolling her eyes.

"Here we go again," said the boy with the tri-corner hat.

Virginia and the boy got to the center, right in each other's faces before two of their brothers pulled them apart.

"You _can_ do something, you know," said Georgia to me. I pushed myself off the wall and decided to help the one who was controlling Virginia, because the boy was already being subdued by two of his brothers.

"Okay," I said, pushing my glasses back up my nose after Virginia had broken free of our grip and went to her seat of her own accord, however angrily. "What the f*ck was that about?"

"Virginia and Delaware have been fighting over who's oldest since Pennsylvania's ratification," said the boy with the hat.

"And your name?" I muttered.

"Massachusetts." He stood. "Okay, names, everyone; we've been completely forgotten about," he announced to the gathering. "Starting with the Carolinas at the door, go."

"South," said the one closest to the door. It's going to be a lot of filler to name them all here: I'll name them as they speak. Virginia was the last one; she actually complied, saying her name but still refusing to look at me.

"Right…great to meet you all."

"Again," said the one who introduced himself as Connecticut.

"Again?"

"Well, yes, you've actually met us before."

"When?"

"Last one was about…hey, Rhode, how old is Hawaii, you know?"

"About fifty-three."

"There you go."

I had kids I didn't speak to for over a half-century? And _now _they want to talk?

I heard the phone in the other room. "Yeah, can we pick this up later? Great," I said without waiting for a response. I snatched the phone off the table and took off for a walk.

* * *

"So, what's the problem that you so _desperately_ wanted to talk to me?" said the familiar voice on the other end. Not so much as a "hello"?

"Nice to hear from you, too, bro."

"Hm," he said. "Well, what was it?"

"You in a rush?"

"Well, no, I'm actually trying to ignore France's calls and you seemed like my best option. So, stop avoiding the subject and tell me what the problem is." He sounded annoyed. I wonder if the desire to stop talking would've been there had he picked up earlier.

"Uh…how's life treating you, pal?"

Silence.

"America, you have three seconds to tell me what's up before this conversation ends."

"Okay, okay," I said, giving in because he wouldn't pick up again after he hung up. "I wanted to ask you about raising kids."

More silence.

"Lovely, I always knew you'd do that to some poor girl, but it's nice to hear you're stepping up."

"What? No!" I yelled. "No, she's not preg- well, actually, there is no 'she', but she's still not –"

"Alright, alright! Why do you have to know, then?"

"Well…no one…at least to _my_ knowledge, no one got pregnant…but I still have kids somehow."

"You _have _kids. As in, 'already', and pluralized child." Quiet again. "How many? Twins? Triplets?"

"Only two sets of twins."

"_Four children_? Blimey, America, you're-"

"Actually, Brit," I said, hesitantly cutting him off. "Closer to…fifty."

_Click_.

"Aw, come on, man!" I yelled at the phone as I dialed him back. I had to call twice before he picked up.

"Took you long enough!" I said in frustration.

"Well, I didn't think you'd appreciate my laughter," he said, still sounding like he was. Doesn't do any good to hide it if you're just going to tell me about it later.

"Laughter."

"Well, at first it wasn't humorous, it was more…more like nervous laughter, somehow, and then the number sank in and, well, I get it now."

I wasn't about to tell him how much longer it took me to get it.

"Well, well…now you're a parent. How lovely!" I could feel the mockery ooze through the receiver. "Tell me, how are you dealing with all the little children running around?"

"Oh, worse…I have teenagers. From the way they were talking, the thirteen oldest have already met you."

"Oh." That sobered him up fairly quickly. "Yes…I suppose that would make sense."

"And you almost let half of them become their own country."

"Well, the reason that failed was because of Lee's own failures, and I believe it was one of your – "

"Look, I'm not calling to get a history lesson, I'm calling so that I can vent about the fifty brats who broke into my house!"

"Broke in? Aren't they family to you? I thought you'd let them in."

"Well, no…my soon-to-be ex-bro did."

"What have I been telling you? Damn creature is nothing but trouble."

"Yeah, but here's the thing: they're all talking like they just got home from school. _I haven't talked to any one of these urchins since before the first world war._"

"Quite a period."

"Yes, but why would I just forget about them?"

"Ah, well, listen, I'd love to stay and chat more on this, but this the eleventh call I've received from France, and I suppose I can't ignore him forever, try though I might. We'll pick this up later this week."

He hung up. "Yeah, bye," I mumbled before turning back around and heading back to the house.

* * *

"Throw it!" yelled one of the boys, holding a bat, to his apparently younger sister. I moseyed up the sidewalk to be greeted by a miniaturized game of softball on my front lawn.

"I'm working on it," she said. Her eyes went from lining up the ball to the ground and back. Finally she screamed out in frustration, "Maybe if Kansas would learn how to call!"

"Hey!" the umpire yelled back, standing up. "Maybe if you'd learn how to read it!"

"Whoa, calm down, Kan," said the shorter one at bat, placing a hand on the taller umpire's chest. "It's not Montana's fault she plays ball like a girl."

At his words, Montana threw herself at her brothers, while the three "basemen" came infield. I sighed and opened the gate to the property, crossed the lawn to the scuffle, and picked up one child in each hand by the back of their shirts.

"Ooh!" said one of the outfielders. "The ref's calling the fight!"

"Enough, both of you. Do you fight like this often?"

"Well, not usually." said Montana. "But Arizona's been all weird lately. Wanting to start fights with everyone."

I looked at the boy. He gave me a scowl to rival Virginia's. He turned on his heel and marched back into the house. Well if he was so unhappy here, why didn't he just leave? He was definitely not _invited_ here.

"What's his problem?" I asked.

"Uh…" Kansas the umpire looked at batter Montana. A baseman (identified later as Iowa) offered the answer, "Recently? You."

* * *

_It got long, which is why I'm stopping here. I have a lot more planned for the relationship with the 13 colonies, which was where we were heading back to before the softball game. B__ut with fifty kids running around, more is happening than just the main stuff. Also am planning on historical flashback things. _


	3. Chapter 3

_I'm posting this because I am displeased with the filler crap I posted earlier. The flashbacks and dream sequences are the historical stuff; if you think I did something wrong, tell me and if your arguement is valid I'll correct it._

* * *

_They were the kids I once played with in the places I found them. When I asked them about going home, each in turn would look at me and say, they already were._

I had every intention of going back and picking up the conversation with the thirteen where I'd left off, but since they'd already left and I was tripping over small kids running around my not-big-enough house, I decided it might be best if I just went upstairs and laid down.

This was too much for me to take in. I knew them. I must because they all know me. It was nagging me in the front, back and middle of my brain. Before I knew it, I was asleep. It was like I was narrating a dream; the first part up there was how it started. What was clearly my voice read those words out…and then a weird picture show happened.

_I looked out over the harbor in Poquoson. I didn't think the ships would come in this far north…they all liked to come in around Chesapeake, or even farther north, in Boston. Well, those were the ports I visited most often, anyway. _

_I was waiting for him to come back to see me. I wanted to show him how different I was now. I was starting to grow taller. At the rate I was going, I would be even taller than my big brother! It was funny to think about. I looked back over the sea and sighed. He had sent me some letters (and some more irritating things) but he hadn't actually been back in years._

_I walked farther into town. There were a group of children kicking around a corn sack they found. I smiled at them: the kids down here were far more fun than the ones in the north. I approached one of the boys and asked if I could play. He looked at me funnily: I admit, I was a bit bigger than most of them there. But his friend convinced him to let me play. It was difficult to be gentle with the sack, but after I got used to it, the game was fun. _

_Once it got to be almost dark, the leader of the game decided to call it quits. "It's getting late, and," he said, picking up the half-full sack of corn, "Goodwife Miller hasn't noticed yet that her husband's corn is short, and I planned to return it before she did." _

_The rest said their goodbyes. I watched the friends go their separate ways. Soon, all who were left were me and one lone girl, barely older than seven. She watched them go the same way I did, as though she were somehow disconnected. I approached her, put my hand on her shoulder._

_"Aren't you going home?" I said._

_"Aren't you?"_

_I blinked at her, rather confused at her remark. She seemed too young for an attitude like that._

_"Well, you might want to get along, then, before your parents worry."_

_"I have none," she said flatly._

_"None? That can't be right!" I only knew of certain circumstances under which she couldn't have parents. I tried the more obvious one first._

_"Orphaned?"_

_"I must have been young when it happened, if it did."_

_She looked after the last two kids, trying to hop over a short fence._

_"I knew his father as a boy. Why does he grow so quickly?"_

_And that was the second possibility._

_"What's your name, child?"_

_"Virginia, brother."_

_Brother? I was her brother? Really? Or was she just calling me that, because she didn't know what else to use? By sight, I was about thirteen, too young for sir, but too much older than her to call me a child or a friend. But, if it was as I thought, I guess she was technically correct._

_"Why are you called that?"_

_"Because it's where I am. They call the place Virginia. Therefore, that is my name."_

_That was how I found the first one. She was the first settlement, therefore, she was the oldest. I don't know how it came to pass that I found them all: it was as though we were connected to each other and like magnets we were pulled together. Virginia was the only one who ever called me brother, but she soon dropped that in favor of what the others called me: father. I never objected, no matter how strange it sounded. They were alone, like me. I knew that alone people like to be together, as though they only had each other. One by one they were found, and I sort of adopted them. They were like my brothers, but always thought of themselves like my sons, probably because I was so much older. We became our own family, and I knew I'd protect them, no matter what happened._

* * *

_"Oh, hey, before you leave, there was one more thing I wanted to show you!" I yelled after my own older brother as he turned to leave again._

_"Oh…can't it wait until next time?" the Brit said weakly. "I have a schedule to keep, and, hey!" he added, yelling out in objection as I dragged him back into the hall. _No, it couldn't, because only God knew when you'd return_, I thought rather angrily._

_"It'll only be a second!" I said cheerfully, not releasing my grip on his wrist. I finally let go once we got to the doorway; he stayed put. I knew he would._

_"Tada!" I said, showing him the inside of the room. He looked confusedly at the gathering of thirteen. They returned it. He backed out slowly, waving at New York who had waved to him first. Then he snatched my arm and led me back to the front door he was to leave from._

_"And the reason you showed me them was because...?" he said, not looking at me until we reached the front door._

_"I thought you'd be happy to meet your nephews."_

_I thought his jaw was going to hit the ground. Instead, he stood there with his mouth only slightly agape, and said slowly, "...You...adopted children?"_

_"Yep! They're the colonies! So, technically, they're part of our family! As much as that little guy to the north and your old pal France!"_

_"I thought _you_ were my colonies."_

_"Yeah, sure am. But I'm them as a collective: they're them as seperate places."_

_"No. No. I have too much to deal with, with paying back the war debt, and managing the people at home, and managing you. They are your problem, not mine. Now, I am late to be getting back. I'll be back when I can, but won't make any promise as to when that will be. Have fun with your...children." And on that note, he left._

* * *

_"He didn't seem to like us," Connecticut said that night as I told them to go to sleep._

_"Who? Britain? Nah, he's...just...busy, and wasn't ready to have that dumped on him." I said, ushering him off to bed as well as I could having one of the twins on each leg. "Girls, you need to get off, I can't walk with you weighing me down. Connecticut, go to sleep."_

_"Here, I've got him," Virginia said, taking over Connecticut while leading her sister Maryland by her other hand. I bent over and pried one of the Carolinas off my right leg, saying, "Come on, girls, it's late and you need to sleep."_

_"But we're not tired!" said whichever twin was still attached to my leg._

_"You will be, trust me." As I stood up with both legs freed, they decided instead to take each of my hands, which I found far less objectionable and led them after their brothers. "Why aren't you tired?" I asked the one on my right._

_"Because! Even though they sleep..."_

_"...there's an unrest among the people," her sister finished. (I figured the fact they shared a brain was because they used to be one colony together.)_

_"Is it that way with you, too?" asked who turned out to be Pennsylvania. _

_"All of you?" In truth, I knew and was experiencing exactly what Penn and the twins were talking about. The colonists were unhappy with how everything was going, how they were being governed. They especially hated the taxes the Crown was putting on us. After having to sit through Britains' stupid explanation, I understand why he did it, but was still totally peeved he did it without asking us, or even letting us have a say in the matter! Of course, he listens to me, but that's more of a personal level: try getting the government to listen to the people, which was where the real problem came in._

_"Well, sleep, and then you'll be ready to deal with all this energy in the morning, okay?"_

_"But -"_

_"You can't do anything about it, now, North."_

_"I'm not -"_

_"Sleep," I said finally, depositing both girls in their room, Penn going ahead of us to join his brothers. _

_All of them had it. I wonder if they had the dreams, too. Or the ideas I had. If they did, I was actually afraid of what they'd do. I mean, perhaps I wasn't the oldest or most mature back then, either, but these are just kids! They act on impulse worse than I do. Of course, without that kind of craziness and impulse, the next step might never have worked..._

* * *

_I think we'll pick this up later. The next part should have more interaction with the states in the real-time, rather than dream versions. _


	4. Chapter 4

_Real world time, yay. (Yes, that's all I have to say.)_

* * *

I couldn't remember falling asleep, so it was a fair surprise when I woke up, still fully dressed, my glasses now askew.

So…I met a bunch of random children and decided to make them my kids? What the hell kind of person was I back then? I don't know if I changed for the better or the worse, though. I pushed myself out of bed and made my way slowly to the door.

Only to be met with a war.

On the side of the hallway by the stairs was one of the Plains, pointing something at Arizona at the other end. Arizona was calling out his brother on all sorts of things. There was more noise downstairs. What the hell happened while I was out?

_I knew I'd protect them, no matter what happened._

Well, God forbid I told any of them that. I wanted no part of this.

Still, this was my house, and I didn't need the fight. Two of the girls rushed upstairs to Plain-state Arkansas's aid, as that was the name they were shouting. Arizona found himself outnumbered three-to-one. He looked from each sister's face to Arkansas' and then threw down his weapon – which turned out to be a kitchen knife.

"We captured Arizona!" one of the girls screamed joyfully, throwing herself on Arkansas.

"_No one's captured anybody_!" I yelled. All four turned as though seeing me for the first time.

"Oh, crap, Dad's up."

"What the f*ck is going on here? How many of you have knives? What's going on downstairs? How many casualties are there? And – "

"Dad, relax," said the girl with the long blonde hair. "It's just a game, Don't have a freakin' cow."

"Don't – " The last time it was "just a game" around here, half the kids decided it was a good idea to follow some idiot who told them he could make them their own nation. Citizens died: it wasn't a game. Soon, it was a family feud, then a complete civil war. Didn't need that around here.

"Don't you tell me this sh*t!" I bellowed at her. The noise at the foot of the stairs stopped instantly.

"Look, really, no one's…and Arizona's the only one with the sharp knife," she said, holding up a wooden spoon. I took it from her.

"And as for you, what the f*ck is your problem?" I snapped at Arizona, brandishing the spoon. He advanced to the stairs, pushing his way past me and his sisters. "Excuse me, we were talking!"

"No, technically, you weren't," said the other sister.

"Why are any of them here if all of them f*cking don't want to be here!?" I said, fuming as I made my way down the stairs. Three of them at the base ran; one left a fork.

"I like it here," I heard from Arkansas behind me.

"Yeah, well, you're about the only one."

* * *

"Dad."

"Whatever it is, go ask your brothers."

"No, they don't like playing ball with me. You saw it earlier."

I rolled over from being curled in a ball on my chair, contemplating my situation. Montana and her tall, skinny, blonde sister who fought on Arkansas' side were standing beside me. I pointed at the sister first.

"Name."

"California."

"Right." I sat up. Then I put my hands on Montana's shoulders.

"Then go ask your sisters if your brothers won't play with you."

"No way! The only two who're int'rested are the Carolinas and they don't play fair!" Montana yelled indignantly.

"You little liar!" yelled one of the twins from the doorway. "Besides, you're the one who doesn't know what she's doing!"

"What'd I tell you, Montana?" called Kansas.

"See! They all hate me just 'cause I wanna play!"

"Look, why don't you just find some of the littler ones and play catch or something?" I said, shooing Montana and California to the other side of the room as I entered the kitchen. "And you," I said, pointing at whichever twin was standing there, "can't you go teach her how to play, or at least for the love of God do _something_ so I can freakin' tell you from the North?" At least the Dakotas, represented by a pair of young, brunet, identical twin boys, wore their hair slightly differently so people _stop_ confusing them, where the Carolinas seem to find pleasure in it, or just anything that seems to get on my last nerve.

"No."

"Why not?" I said, trying to keep the threatening tone out of my voice as much as possible.

"I'm North." Confirmed.

"Go play ball with your sisters," I said, knowing full well now North and South Carolina were just testing me. She stared at me as though she didn't understand the order. "North Carolina. Find your clone and _go play with your sisters._" She finally walked away; under her breath I could've sworn I heard, "I'd like to hear him order Virginia that way," before I heard her call, "South! Let's go play with the brats!"

I sank into one of the kitchen chairs and groaned. This whole parenting thing sucked. Kansas and who I believe was called Michigan were watching me as I tried to escape my house.

"And imagine how it gets without having the ref," said Kansas.

"You shouldn't need a 'ref', you should be old enough and mature enough to handle yourselves!" I said loudly, closing my eyes. These kids were giving me a headache. How do other nations do it? And this was only my first day! Well, my first day in about ninety years, anyway. Which made me think of a question.

"Let me ask you something," I said, looking up at the two boys. "How good was I with you guys way back when?"

"Oh, back then? You weren't bad. You were a sort of mix between a father and an older brother to us. You kept the peace when we couldn't fix it ourselves. You never gave up on us, even when a few turned their backs on you. Then, well, isolationism stopped, we entered a global economy and have been in a constant state of overseas war ever since. You never really had time for us after that. And I guess, somehow...we just fell to the junk pile that is the back of a mind."

"We're not a junk pile, Kansas," said Michigan. "How could you say that?"

"I said we were buried in one."

"Implying we are trash. Well, we're not."

"I never implyed -"

"We're -" Michigan started again, before Kansas stood, picked him up and deposited him in the waste basket under the sink.

"Hey!"

"Now you're in the trash. Does that make you trash, Michigan?"

"Dad!" I ignored his cry, but listened to every word of their exchange.

No, they weren't trash. They were annoying as f*ck and the current bane of my existance, but they weren't trash. Didn't mean I wanted anything to do with them, either. I pushed past Kansas and lifted Michigan out of the can.

"Stop," I said firmly, yet I couldn't keep the exhaustion out of my voice. "We can't have this. Not anymore." I set him down and turned to leave.

Not again.

* * *

_I didn't want to end it on the note that leads into the Civil War, because that part won't be next. But I started something else and I couldn't find a quick way to end it so I just cut back a scene. I think the next chapter will have another flashback sequence that I spent a good portion of today writing in class when I should've been paying attention._


	5. Chapter 5

_I'm thinking about raising the rating on this: I'm getting tired of watching my language. A lead-in is necessary here for the flashback to not just be random and spontaneous. So, enjoy the short lead-in, and the flashback with a _lot_ more thought put into it._

* * *

The first day with them was amazing. Notice I said "amazing." Just because the most oft used connotation is positive, doesn't mean that it's a good kind of amazement. I can be amazed and horrified at the same time.

Perhaps _amazed _isn't the correct word. I guess if I had to pick another word..."overwhelmed" might be it. But can I really be blamed? I've seen parents struggle at the park or store controlling only two or three kids. Some can't handle one, especially if they're young parents. And here I was with fifty, effectively a single father, with no recollection of each one's arrival so they were basically dumped on me all at once.

The thing that I hated most was every three minutes, another "war" had started. A few times it was nothing more than a stand-off of Wyoming and Utah versus the Dakota twins, pointing finger guns at each other and creating their own sound effects. I think between my own yelling being heard across the street and the word spread by Arkansas, California, and the other sister Ohio, they all were too afraid to try to pull the stunt like they did earlier again. Which didn't stop Alabama, Oregon and Texas from trying.

I was exhausted by the end of the day (and I'd barely done anything, not to mention I still didn't know how long my surprise nap was). Thankfully, so were they. A new problem then arose: where the f*ck am I supposed to keep all these kids?

As I came up with the solution of a "camping" trip (where I was just going to make them all sleep outside), I was greeted with _their_ solution: find any place not occupied by another state and pass out. Actually, it didn't seem to matter (at least not to Louisiana and Mississippi) if the space was already occupied. I had gone for another walk after breaking up what promised to be an actual fight between Idaho and Nevada (not sure what the problem was).

I found my way upstairs after stepping over New Mexico at the staircase base in the dark. I wondered if they'd left my room alone. I didn't see them initially: I turned on the light, ignoring my eyes' protests. I searched thoroughly as I deemed necessary, before I decided either the room was empty or I just didn't care anymore. I turned off the light, removed my glasses and fell into my bed. As soon as I hit the pillow, I was out, ready to be greeted by another blast from my past.

* * *

_We wound up a town over from my house. It had been quiet that week: no sign of those damn Redcoats anywhere. I stole from the temporary base: I had to see them while I still had the chance. I approached the small place, still in uniform, dead of night. I knocked quietly but decisively. I wanted them to know I was there. If they were asleep, I wanted them awake._

_I didn't have to wait too long for the door to open. My girl Virginia, about twelve now, opened the door. The look on her face when she saw me…._

_"But…"_

_My face fell as far as hers, but couldn't quite match the look of shock, elation, relief and horror all mixed together._

_"It's okay. It's not a specter, it's really me." I held my arms out._

_A small yell of joy came from Virginia's feet as the door flew open and the twins each latched onto a leg. My heart was ready to burst with the happiness I felt at seeing them. I contented myself with a smile, beaming at the pair and patting a newly arrived Rhode Island on the head._

_"I can't stay long, though." I looked up to avoid the three disappointed faces at my knee. Virginia's own visage hadn't changed at all. I shuffled over with the girls still on my legs and Rhode Island hanging off my arm. I leaned into her face and said quietly so the kids wouldn't hear, "What's wrong here?"_

_She turned her eyes toward the ground and the tears started coming._

_"It's settled." She went into the house. I shuffled in after her._

_All my daughters were awake, apparently. Maryland was sitting on the floor with a cornhusk doll, playing by herself, while Georgia sat in a chair: from the look of it, she was watching Maryland until Virginia stalked past. Then she looked at me. It looked like she'd lost a lot of sleep lately._

_"I thought I heard your voice," she said, sounding exhausted. Then her attention was immediately drawn back to Virginia, who had just returned and was heading to the door. With a shotgun in her hands._

_"Whoa! Hey!" I said, shaking my legs to get the twins off and ran out the door after her. She was going at a good pace, but she wasn't running, so it was easy enough to catch up._

_"Virginia!" I yelled after her. I caught her arm and turned her around and wrenched the weapon from her grip. "What is the matter with you!?"_

_"_You didn't bring them back so someone has to_!" she screamed. She eyed the gun a second longer before gathering her skirt and striding back to the house. I ran after her again, abandoning the weapon. I caught her again by the shoulders and made her face me._

_"Virginia! Who's coming back?" She didn't answer. If I thought Georgia looked bad, Virginia looked far worse. I tried something else. I figured maybe she wanted the mood lightened. "Where are the rest of your brothers?" I said, trying to smile. "I saw Rhode and you girls: are all your brothers asleep?"_

_"I don't know!" she screamed in my face. I tried to hush her as to not alarm the neighbors. She turned suddenly enough that she escaped my grip and took back off toward the house. I picked up the gun and followed her. I wasn't about to catch her again. I think leaving her in charge, even with Delaware to help her, was taking its toll on her._

_I entered the house. Maryland had disappeared and one of the twins was playing with the doll with Rhode Island, while the other was sitting off to the side with Georgia._

_"What's up with Virginia?" I asked Georgia. Her face changed and I think she paled._

_"Well…" she started hesitantly. Another foreign yet familiar face poked his head out of the other door._

_"I thought it sounded like a familiar voice," said New Jersey, his face breaking in a grin. And I meant breaking: I don't think any of them had smiled in a long time. Every smile I saw that night looked forced and painful. He looked around expectantly, his face falling with each inch his head moved, sweeping the room. By the time he looked around twice, his face was as stricken as Virginia's and Georgia's._

_"But…"_

_Something had happened here that they weren't telling me._

_"Georgia, what happened?" She looked conflicted between the stares she was receiving from me and her sister, who had just entered when I asked that, leaning against the wall, her arms crossed._

_"Virginia, let me see your brothers." She gave me the look I'd become far too familiar with._

_"I can't."_

_"No, you just won't," I said, advancing as she made to block the doorway to the other room. "Where's your partner? If nothing else, let me see how Delaware's been – " but as I spoke, she completely lost it and retreated into the other room; I heard her press herself softly against the opposite side of the wall and start sobbing quietly._

_"Rhode, girls," Georgia said as I walked back to the center of the room, "why don't you go to sleep?" Rhode Island obliged, but the twins faces showed the identical look of shock and each attacked her favorite leg again. It nearly broke my heart to do this to them, but I squatted down and put my hand on each girl's head._

_"You really need to learn to listen to your sisters." They gave each other a look only they knew and got up, leaving for bed as Virginia reemerged. Other than her red eyes there was no sign she'd been crying. She leaned back against her wall. I looked from her face of defiance poorly covering anxiety, to Georgia, who looked nervous and worried, to New Jersey, whose face reflected his disappointment and discomfort with the situation as he decided to retire for the evening (alright: the late night)._

_I turned back to Virginia. "There's a reason I put both you and Delaware in charge here. I knew you could handle it, but also knew you couldn't handle it alone."_

_"Great. So tell _him_ that," she snapped._

_A hand touched my shoulder. I looked back at Georgia._

_"Erm…Delaware, New York and Massachusetts left three months ago. No word since." My heart plummeted: it needed to stop swinging high and low or it would shatter soon._

_"What do you mean, left?" I nearly shouted. Georgia threw an apologetic look across the room and said, "They couldn't stand sitting around here while there were men dying out there. They joined their respective militias. We haven't seen or heard from them since." She was controlling her emotions with what looked like great difficulty._

_I had nothing to say. "I guess you haven't heard from them, either, since this seems like such a surprise." My face was numb: I couldn't tell my expression._

_"I have to leave." I took her shoulders. "I'm not on leave: I just had to see you."_

_"What about our brothers?"_

_"There are only two ways we lose them, Georgia: the most likely is if we lose this and forget them. Which I _will not let happen_." The only other way was if the jerk himself encountered my sons, the chances of which were slim, but not small enough for my mind's ease. "We will not lose." I leaned in to her. "I need you now, Georgia. I'm sure you can do this: your sister needs all the help she can get." I straightened and strode to the door. "And, please, girls: try your hardest not to let any more leave!" I wasn't about to tell them I wouldn't be able to handle it if I lost my boys (or my girls, for that matter: I half-expected Virginia to take off anyway). I think they understood, though. But I was resolved. If I caught that bastard anywhere near any of my children, I would not hesitate to kill him. Not this time. No matter what our past or whatever I felt hidden under my surface: he would die on the spot._

_I would not lose. This wasn't just about ideas and ideals. This was and had always been about the people. I don't know why I couldn't see it until this moment, but it finally clicked in my mind that there was more at stake now than I'd ever imagined._


	6. Chapter 6

_More flashbacks: we're still covering the young days of this nation. Doing all my research on this is definitely helping out the character advancement of some of them (I don't think I'll be using Minnesota extensively, though: no offense)._

* * *

_I brought out the paper and put it on the table in front of the kids. By this point, they had caught up to each other in age. They all looked at it, some much more_

_excitedly than others. Of course, being still kids, they didn't _quite_ understand it._

_Finally Vermont (one of the new territories up north) asked, "What is it, Papa?"_

_"Can't you read it?" New Jersey chided. "It says 'Articles of Confederation.' That's what it is."_

_"Yeah, but what does it mean? Explain that, genius."_

_"Hey, boys," I said, holding up my hands. "Simply put, this is the law. This is how we set up our government."_

_"_Our _government?" asked Maryland, absolutely riveted with the idea._

_"Wait," Virginia said, having to open her mouth. I refrained from pulling what Connecticut did behind her and shake my head. "I thought we could each start our own. Have our own governments."_

_"Well, yes, you are. You are sovereign, which means you are independent and make the rules. However, you still function under me, therefore your rules can't contradict mine." She folded her arms. "Anything I don't cover, it's up to you to do it. Enough freedom for you? That's what this whole thing was about, you know," I added, chuckling. I think I managed to get a small smile out of her. Perhaps it was a smirk._

_"So, now we're nations!" cheered Rhode Island. _

_"Ah, sort of." Massachusetts stepped in to break his bubble. "We technically aren't. As far as I see it, _he's_" he pointed at me, "the nation here. We're...subordinates. Regions."_

_"Wait: so, what did all this accomplish?" Georgia asked._

_"It means we're not colonies anymore, but we aren't totally free countries."_

_"In other words, nothing at all," Connecticut said._

_"I thought Papa just said we were seperate," said North Carolina, her twin nodding in agreement next to her._

_"It's complicated to explain," I said, finally stepping in. "You're seperate, but together. Like our concept of a family. You have a father - me - and all of you are brothers and sisters. As the father, I make the rules, but if there are things I don't make a rule about, it's your job to discipline yourselves. Does that make sense?" A few of the boys nodded. _

_"So these are your rules?" Rhode Island asked me._

_"Yeah. Remember all that time last week you spent arguing about what was fair and what wasn't? We put that all in here," I said, putting my hand on the parchment. "Everything should work just fine." _

_Everyone made a sound at this, from the murmur of consent that rippled through New England to the more easily excitable southern colonies jumping with their little cheers._

_"Great." I smiled, wondering if they heard me._

_"So, what are we?" New York asked eagerly._

_"We're a nation!" New Hampshire, quiet until now, said in disbelief at his brother's incompetance._

_"Well, yeah, but what's our name?"_

_"His name!" New Jersey said, pointing at me._

_"Wait: that doesn't seem right," Vermont said. He looked at me. "Isn't this whole thing we're on called America?"_

_"What? The continent? Well, yeah, but do you think this is all the farther we're spreading to?" I asked. I wanted to go farther west. We needed to finish things out here first, but the plan was to reach the other ocean._

_"And another thing," Virginia started._

_"Virginia, you really need to learn to stop talking," Delaware said. She turned on him like an angry cat._

_"_Would you really like to say that again_?" she yelled._

_"Boys, girls, calm the f*ck down," I said. I secretly agreed with Delaware, but for the sake of getting the arguement out (and I'd hear this whether I'd let her speak or not), I said, "Continue, Virginia."_

_"Right. Another thing is we contributed as much as you did, whether here or...out there." I think she was still a bit shaken by her brothers' absence. "So, why aren't we part of the name?" she said, instantly reverting to her usual briskness._

_"Well, then, what do you suggest?"_

_"We are under no circumstances putting 'Virginia' anywhere in the country name," Massachusetts sneered. Virginia turned bright red and spun to face him, ready to release all her fury on her brother._

_"Wait, don't kill him!" South Carolina said, pulling Rhode Island in with her to block Virginia's path. _

_"You have ten seconds before I take both of you down with him!" Here probably would've been a good place to get involved, if South hadn't said:_

_"You're ruining my idea!"_

_I didn't actually think that would stop her. She looked with a scowl that poorly masked her surprise and curiosity down her nose at her sister._

_"Yeah," said North, stepping in aside Rhode Island. "Infighting's sorta destroying the unity."_

_"Unity? I thought we were seperate!"_

_"We are seperate. But just like the jerk," North said (I love my kids), "he's got his brothers with him: they're seperate, but function as one! We do that too!"_

_"I think Lina's got the grip on this." Connecticut nodded his approval._

_"But I'm Carol."_

_"So, what are we supposed to call ourselves?" Virginia said, trying to shove sarcasm where it wouldn't fit._

_"Um..." They all shut up for a minute, something that never happens with thirteen kids._

_"The American Union?" Georgia offered._

_"I was thinking more along the lines of the Pact of Small Nations," New Jersey disagreed._

_"That's worse than my idea."_

_"Hey!" New York said, taking center stage. "I've got it. No, listen, Virginia, this is good." He stood straight and said, "He called us sovereign. States are sovereign. So...how do you like the States Union?"_

_"Better idea," called out Massachusetts. "The United States."_

_"Do _not_ change that," Georgia said. "That was perfect right there."_

_"So, you all like that?" I asked, getting tired of this but at the same time enjoying every minute._

_"Oh, we forgot about Papa's part in this!" South announced._

_"America's United States?" New Hampshire suggested._

_"Nah: sounds too informal. But I like the concept: is there another way to say it?" Virginia asked, dropping every negative thing about her voice._

_"Yeah," New York said. "Like, instead of Maryland's doll," he gestured at his sister, "we could say, the doll of Maryland. There: the United States of America."_

_It rang through the group. They liked it. It gave them a personal identity, but still identified them as mine. I ran it past the writers of the law the next morning and it was the name put on the final draft. That was their name. They were pleased with it. It was true. I never saw them come together like that again. Not for such a long time._

* * *

_"Look what we got..." Delaware sang in Virginia's ear, Pennsylvania by his side._

_I didn't realize the Articles would be _that_ big of a failure. They were sent in for revision after the farmers' riots we had no power over, and deemed such a lousy idea that instead of taking it back to the drawing board, they scrapped the whole document and started on what _would_ become a working version of our country's law, otherwise known in these parts as the Constitution._

_She turned from her reading and swiveled to see the piece of paper Delaware was holding in his hands. _

_"Stop reminding me about it; they'll get to it when they get to it, and I can't make the indecisive twits move any faster."_

_"Yeah, but I thought you'd like to see who your oldest two brothers are."_

_She leaned into the paper. I looked as her face went from saying, "Let's look so they'll go away," to "I can't believe this is how they interpret this."_

_"Older?"_

_"Yeah. Penn and me signed first. So, we're the first and second of the official states. You may want to get moving on that, lest you become the youngest."_

_"Does it really matter who's older?" asked Georgia wearily, not looking up from her sewing._

_"Well, yeah," said Delaware. To his side, Pennsylvania looked like he wanted no more to do with this. "This way Virginia and New York can stop acting so superior._

_New York threw his hands halfway into the air, as if to say, "What did I do?"_

_"You just have a complex because I'm the first real settlement." Virginia folded her arms._

_"See, there you go, doing it again."_

_"Okay, okay: kids," I said, finally stepping in, trying to prevent the inevitable fight. They all - _ALL _- stared at me. It was there I realized I didn't have a very good explanation as to why they should stop fighting (and that whole "because I said so" thing wasn't going to work here). I wound up being saved from this by North Carolina, who stepped in with, "I think our name is already obsolete," not even bothering to look up from her paper. Her twin gave a smirk at her, her head bowed in an attempt to hide it._

_The other eleven looked at her, all their faces spelling they knew she had something, but no one wanting to admit it. Virginia looked back at Delaware and, regaining her usual haughty manner, said, "So what if you signed it first. I'll still be first." He rolled his eyes in response. "And I can't do anything about it if they don't sign the damned parchment so I suppose you can just drop this at once." She turned around and returned to her reading. Behind her, Delaware and Pennsylvania gave each other a smug look and walked away. _

_"They can believe whatever they'd like; it changes nothing," Virginia mumbled after the pair were out of earshot. "And it's not like we're not a country without this stupid paper: it's just the new house rules. I don't know what makes them think they're so superior."_

_She looked up to see half her siblings had left the room._

* * *

_Okay: THIS was filler. I want to cover as much of the history behind this story as possible: I think it makes the story believable to know character backgrounds. Anyway, next chapter: back to the real world with a next-century flashback to the second American war. If there's too much history or not enough fact, please don't hesitate to let me know what's wrong! _


	7. Chapter 7

_It has occured to me that I may be writting America a bit OOC in this fanfic. So, the Brit's going to help me hang a lampshade and once I get this whole thing beaten into the character's head, I'll try harder to bring the old jerkiness back._

* * *

I probably wouldn't have woken up that next morning if my phone hadn't gone off. I lifted my head and crawled backward out of bed. I was hoping that perhaps Britain was calling me back, to pick up where we left off (I feel like I'm going to regret putting that line down). I searched through my other pants for the device, picked up and sleepily mumbled, "Lo."

"Hey," said the quiet voice on the other end. "I figured I'd probably be waking you; you sound tired. Should I call back?"

"Nah, I'm already up. Who is this?"

The line went quiet for a second.

"Seriously, do you _use_ your caller ID?"

I looked blearily at the screen. "Oh, hey, bro. 'Sup?"

I heard an audible sigh from the other nation. "Yeah...I was wondering if the plans for next week were still going on."

"Plans?"

"Oh, never mind, then."

"Hm." Now stuff was being hidden. Nice: first secret kids, now a secret plan.

"It was nothing, really, I mean if you don't want us over, that's cool. I guess you'd have something planned with your other friends."

"Oh, sure you can, if you want. Might be...busy...but if you really want to." I couldn't think of how to drop the bomb of his nephews on him.

"Great. They're looking forward to it. They said they might go visiting if -"

"Okay: you lost me." I had explained to myself that "they" and "us" were other friends. But I wasn't grasping that Canada would bring a bunch of people (which I didn't think he knew that many to begin with) and then tell them to go elsewhere. "Who's 'they'?"

"Oh, right, you haven't met them yet, have you? Well, maybe we'll come early and you can meet some of your family from up north." I think Canada just dropped his own nephew bomb here.

I refrained from hanging up, but I refused to speak.

"America, you still there?"

"Er...yeah, I'm still here. Uh...sure, if you want...just know that there...won't be much room here..."

"Oh, you have yours over, too? I wasn't under the impression you were big on having a family!"

Wait. "What do you mean, mine too? You have kids!?" I had already guessed, but the incredulity could not be held in anymore.

"Well...yeah. Thirteen. Why?"

"Nice to know you have a small number," I grumbled.

"Well, I could handle more if they weren't like Quebec. He's a little too..._French_, if you know what I'm saying." I think I blanched slightly: we all knew we didn't need two Frances running around this planet.

"Can't you leave him home?"

"No: he's excited about seeing your south." Trying to ignore the other implications, I assumed he meant his southern cousins (Why? All I could think of was the French Quarter in Louisiana).

"So, what? Coming up around...?"

"Uh...perhaps Saturday? You busy?"

"Nah. There's something coming up, but I've been so busy with my job and now I have the stress of the kids, I haven't been able to think."

"Oh." We went silent for a minute. Then he broke it with, "Well, I should let you get back to dealing with your 'stress' then. See you this weekend."

"Sure." I hung up and shoved the phone in a drawer before audibly moaning, "F*CK."

* * *

I figured that without them all standing still and letting me count noses, I'd never know how many were where and doing what at any given moment in time. I had kids in the front yard, basement, backyard, kitchen...anywhere a human could stand, the kids were probably there. I took my spot in my chair out of habit. And may have prompty fallen back asleep, but not long enough to have another gratuitous flashback before I was shaken awake by little hands, accompanied by high voices before they were ushered out by an older voice saying clearly, "Leave him be, guys. Maybe later."

I sat up. They were all gone by that point. The noise by no means stopped, but seemed so faint. Then the popping.

"If I'm hearing guns -" I yelled, thrusting myself into the backyard. Sure, I liked my Second Amendment, but that didn't mean I condoned shooting for _no reason at all_, other than a stupid sibling rivalry. About twenty of the kids looked up from what they were doing to look at me.

"Hi."

I held out my hand for the offending object. One of the boys closest to me deposited a used popper in my palm. As he turned back and took out another one, one of his sisters sighed loudly and offendedly.

"The way he talks," she said, looking at Kansas, preoccupied with his own popper, "you'd think every two seconds we were starting a new civil war." He simply nodded in agreement.

_POP._

I left.

* * *

"So, tell me the number again?" the accented voice on the other end said. After getting Japan's answering machine (which had instructions in some weird foreign language so I couldn't leave a message), I decided to call Britain back. Once again using the excuse that he was ignoring others to talk, he didn't seem to mind my frustrated rambling.

"Sixty. Three," I said, punctuating each of the words with a full-stop. "Sixty-three: as if I didn't have enough to deal with. All I know is he better know how to keep his under control!"

"Right...and the reason you didn't tell him to leave them there...? You're usually such an arse and forward with everybody, I wonder why you didn't insist," he said, throwing a bit of sarcasm right there. I didn't fuel it: I was still in a fog, though coming to terms with this much more quickly than I was yesterday. "But seriously, you aren't acting right. While I would love for you to act like this more often - and I know I'm not alone on that - you're definitely out-of-character, and it worries me a tinge." Beat. "Never repeat that last part."

"Oh, really?" I hadn't noticed. "Ah... I guess I could blame it on this stress."

"Well, yes, I suppose you could. What are they doing, exactly?"

"I can't go anywhere without there being at least three of them already there; and then there's all their different personalities. I've got the trigger-happy West - which I still don't mind, but there's no reason to point anything at anyone here! The North, who is a mixed bag in and of itself. And, I'm convinced all but four actually hate me!"

"Right. Because no one could possibly hate you."

"I know!" He breathed heavily into the phone. "I guess I just didn't have it in me. I haven't had much left in me since yesterday morning."

"To do what?"

"We were talking about Canadia's kids."

"Oh, right." He sounded like he was doing that thing with his hand behind his neck (said vocal tone was always accompanied with that look). "Well, how do they hate you?"

"Haven't met them yet."

"I meant yours."

"Well, I think the south is still a bit sore over that whole war thing, though I didn't actually do anything. Two most notable examples include Virginia, who it seems is like that with all of them, and Arizona seems to have this nice-sized grudge against me, which I wouldn't be surprised turns into a personal vendetta soon. Then there are about six who I think less 'hate' me and are actually trying to make me hate _them_. And each of the ones I adopted - well, from others, anyway," I added quickly, remembering his reaction to when he thought they were _biologically_ mine.

"Well, that's kids for you."

"How so?"

"One minute you're on perfectly good terms; next they're trying to kill you and instigate an arguement every chance they get."

"Where have I heard that before?" I said sarcastically, trying to inject my smile into the sound. "Oh come on, bro, I was joking!" I said loudly when he wouldn't answer.

Another beat. "You _never _tire of that, do you? No matter how many times I tell you it _really_ isn't, nor has it ever been, funny..."

"Yeah, I know." I laughed quetly, turning the reciever from my mouth so he couldn't pick it up. In truth, I just loved getting that reaction out of him...wait. Aw, damn it: the old man had a point.

"Yeah...I see."

Several beats. I checked the timer to see he was still there. "_Hey_."

"Sorry: you just blew my mind for a second. Did you actually say you _understood_ something I just said?"

"Yeah." I felt myself turn red; not like he'd ever notice. "So what? One good point in two hundred thirty years?" I laughed. "Not exactly an awesome record!"

"And what made you come to _this_ conclusion?" He sounded _way_ too happy over there. I wasn't taking the bait. Unless he took...

"You know what?" I said, going back to my usual self for a moment. "I'll tell you when you come over next week!"

"Why can't you tell me this now?"

"Because then you won't come! Plus, why would you miss meeting all sixty-three nephews and nieces?"

I think I picked up a mumble on the other side that sounded like it contained "hell". Yeah, I know. "Well, I suppose it's not that important for me to know, then. I have more important things to do than be on the line with you. Perhaps some other time." Once again, with no warning, he hung up.

Which sucked. I wanted to tell somebody why.

* * *

_We were all together in my city when it happened. By this point, my thirteen had four more: three brothers, Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee, and a sister Ohio. And we were "expecting" more, if I can say that, what with the territories and all. Achieving the dream of reaching the Pacific._

_I was back on "leave", which was the term I used when I didn't want to tell my kids exactly how many times I was shot. We had been reinvaded: damn Redback couldn't just accept the fact that he lost. Of course, the main antagonist here was actually - incredibly - the normally quietest thing you would ever meet, if you ever met him at all. Yeah...I didn't always have the _greatest _relationship with my brother. He didn't like that I tried to take his "vital region" of Toronto. _

_Of course_, I thought, looking back on the memory now surfacing while I was conscious, _if this is the same relationship, I wouldn't want him touching my kids either_.

_Our great nation's capital never arose in the form of a child. So, we jokingly called it "my place". I had a good place there, and on the occasions I was back and the kids could come over, it made it that much better to be there. So, you can imagine how uncool I thought it was when I heard that the capital was burning._

_Well, who wouldn't panic? Damn British disguised as Canadians came down and decided to claim the capital as theirs. There was so much happening I didn't know which way to turn to do something. Of course, the logical thing would have been to extinguish the capital. But would it have mattered? The District of Columbia didn't belong to us anymore._

_I found the bastard. He was overlooking the whole operation. I marched behind him. I would have no problem killing him either. I turned him around by the shoulder while he tried to arm himself properly. I slapped the gun away from my face, but he held onto it. _

_"What the hell is your problem?" I yelled angrily in his face, holding him up to mine by the collar. I don't think his face ever made that expression again._

_"When are you going to learn to stay out of what isn't yours?" He pushed me away. I brought my gun to eye level, prepared to shoot when he did. He didn't raise his gun to me though. "I don't care how often the border is disputed or how many of the other nations think I'm you, _I'm not_!" He shouted, loudly enough to be heard over the rest of the noise in the background. (A/N: More out-of-character nations, but I've read that Canada can get pretty nasty when provoked. Plus, he really DID destroy D.C.)_

_"You don't like this?" He gestured at the city of Washington, rapidly being consumed in a blaze. "Then stick to your borders and leave everyone elses' alone!"_

_He turned and started his way down to the city. I raised my gun back up. I could have ended him there. I could have. I didn't. Something kept me from pulling it. _

_I had other things to worry about at the time, I noticed, as I dropped my gun and took the one out of New York's charging hands. He fell on his back as I swung it up and out of his grip, while his reluctance to let go was only rivaled and surpassed by gravity and momentum. He watched my brother walk away and then looked up at me as I closed my eyes tightly in concentration and a contradictory escape._

_"What? You're just going to let him get away with this?" he asked, unable to believe what he was seeing._

_"You come to realize there are some things more important than the conquest and the kill. Where are your sisters? Let's get this place put out and take her back tomorrow."_

* * *

_Am I implying too much homosexuality? It's not supposed to, though I enjoy innuendos of that sort. But this is not a shipping story. I don't write those well. Not alot in the way of states here, and I think I'm taking on too many characters. Expect the same few states to show up time and again. I keep saying this is filler, but...well, it all seems to fit the definition unless it's in flashback form. _

_*audible sigh* I have so many ideas for later pieces but no way to connect them. The War of 1812 flashback was the whole point of introducing Canada and his provinces into the story, and I couldn't even accomplish _that _properly. Well, the hard part is over, but I wanted to include it. Why? I don't know anymore. But the rest shouldn't be as hard from here._


	8. Chapter 8

_Once again, I believe this is filler. I'm writing a lot of parallels, trying to connect the flashbacks to the realtime. That's why everything is progressing slowly._

* * *

Why do I have to wake up to a fight every morning?

I initially rolled back over and tried to fall asleep, ignoring best I could the screaming and noise. Then I heard the poppers again and figured, since it was too early for that crap, I better go down and tell them to keep it quiet.

So, I get downstairs to find several of the Plains tied to chairs, monitored by Texas and Arizona holding, respectively, a gun and a knife.

"You two mind moving?" I said to the pair sitting on the stairs.

"Yes," said the girl. She looked older than the others: she was dark and slim. The boy she was with looked substantially younger, and had something about him that scared me slightly. "This is the Step of Neutrality. _Kuaʻana_ and I are protesting this fight and are not getting involved."

"Who?" I said, confused by her word. She pointed at the boy, who raised his hand.

"As I see it, they all get into fights because they are too close. Because we are far, we don't have as close or as rotten a relationship with them as they have amongst themselves. Also, a few seem to be bitter about something. I can't quite understand it."

"So that makes you...?" She and the boy looked at me, puzzled. "Your names."

"Oh. I'm Hawaii. This is my brother Alaska." He waved. I sat two steps up from them and looked at him in his eyes. He stared back.

"Well, hi, Alaska." He nodded.

"My brother doesn't speak," Hawaii said quietly.

"Doesn't or can't?"

"Does it matter?"

"Well, one way, he's being stubborn, the other way he's actually incapable. Anyway, like I said, do you mind moving so I can go stop those who aren't neutral from killing each other?"

Hawaii reluctantly stood. I went over to Texas and Arizona. Both raised their weapons.

"Seriously: this needs to stop. I have three wars abroad to deal with. I don't need one here."

"This isn't war," Texas said with a smirk. "It's only a war if the guns get fired."

I sighed, not taking my eyes off the weapons still pointed at my face. Stopping by force wasn't happening when the peacekeepers were outnumbered forty-eight to one. So, maybe if I tried showing interest in their game. "So, what have we got here?"

"Whose side are you on?" yelled Missouri, wiggling to try to free himself from the twine.

"We're trying to take control of the Plain states, but damn Yankees still have Nebraska."

"Ok, let's see if we can't reason with the damn Yankees," I said, going outside.

A group of three was sitting on the patio confined by a chalk circle. I sat in front of them.

"Hey. Who captured you?"

"The midwest, but we're basically taken by New England. The two joined forces," answered one of the boys; I believe he was named Oregon.

"And you are...?"

"Pacific. But we were small to begin with, and then Alaska and Hawaii refused to take sides, so it's just me, California and Oregon," said the other brother (who by default must've been Washington).

"We basically gave ourselves up," Oregon said. California nodded in agreement.

"What happened to start this?" All three shrugged. "What, did someone just get up and say, hey, let's start a war today for the hell of it?"

"Texas. New York seconded."

A blank look fell over my face. I shook my head.

"Who's making the popping? According to them inside, no shots have been fired."

"Oh: cracker war." California pointed to where a few of her siblings were throwing burnt paper at each other. "They ran out a while ago. It got really intense between South Carolina and Ohio for a while. Then Florida got Ohio from behind and...well, now we don't have Ohio."

"And, what happened to Ohio?"

"Undisclosed location. Technically, so are we, because no one told anyone we were in the circle." Really.

I looked around at the group still flinging bits of paper at each other. I don't know why they had to do this. Really. Perhaps it's best they don't have any real power in the world: we'd all be screwed. At the least here, only my house is screwed. But there was no space for them here, especially if they were going to be fighting like this.

Something hit me in the head and exploded, soaking my entire left side. I turned to see the problematic twins holding between them three water balloons.

"No talking with the prisoners," one girl scolded me.

"Hey, look. There's an opening," Oregon pointed out. The concrete around me had become wet, and the chalk had washed away a bit. Oregon reached out and further weakened the barrier by wiping it out. He bid then his brother and sister to follow him and they ran back into the house. The Carolinas stared after them, dumbfounded.

"Crap."

"Ok, you know what. This place isn't big enough for you all to fight at once." They turned their full attention back on me. I wanted them to stop. But...I couldn't make them stop. So, I went with the saying, if you can't beat 'em..."

"Gather your forces. I have a plan.

* * *

Since I knew of few places with wider space than a park, I had them all go there to conduct their battle. I sat on a bench and watched them run. Apparently, I was sitting to begin with too close to the South's prison, so they made me move. By this point, Washington had convinceed the Neutral siblings to join the Pacific side. I made them leave the weapons at home, much to half their dismay. This turned instead into a war of water.

A woman sat next to me with a stroller. She looked out at the group and smiled faintly.

"Kids."

"Yeah..." I had no idea what I'd just agreed to, but ok.

She looked at me, staring weirdly at them. I wondered faintly what she was thinking about it. Then she answered.

"Any of them yours? Kids? Siblings?"

While they all called me such, I didn't think I looked old enough to be a father, much less to kids as old as fourteen. So, I just shrugged the question off. "They're fun to watch. I remember being that young, playing with my brothers like that all the time." Which wasn't really true: I never had much of a chance to play with my brother when I was young.

"They seem to be enjoying themselves, don't they?" she said, as Kansas got hit with a hard balloon thrown by West Virginia.

"Yeah..." I was trying to repress an already successfully repressed memory, about the last time I recall anything like this happening. It was going to surface whether I liked it or not, but I didn't need it now.

She left long before we did. And once they did, they didn't return to base, but wound up going all around the town. The sun had finally set (and it was June, so you know that's late) before I finally convinced them to go back to my place. I led a parade of fifty completely soaked children behind me (what a sight; I don't want to know where all those balloons came from) all the way across town. I kept looking back at them. They were laughing. All of them. And here I thought they completely hated each other. I suppose times change. And since I let them fight now, I'll probably find another one tomorrow. But, at least for now, they're just having fun. I've shoved them in their roles as small nations so firmly that I've forgotten they were kids. They were able to play without lasting consequences. Perhaps we all were, but just never did. Their idea of war was different from mine, at least for today.

But they did have an idea of a real war. I supressed the memory for the time being. They knew exactly what it meant. Why was I so hung up on this time period? What does it matter today? Why does a family feud from one-hundred-fifty years ago mean anything now?

"Okay, you should all be fought-out; no more. Okay?" I turned my attention to Texas, who was eying the gun on the counter. I looked at Virginia. "Keep that away from him." Then I remembered who I was talking to and immediately regretted saying it.

"I'm going upstairs. If I get a call from the neighbors or the cops, I am not helping you get out of jail." With that, I followed through and went up. These kids tired me out somehow. I never had to do anything to be tired because of them.

I layed back. They were something, though. They had this sense of, whatever they did, it only affected them. Which, to a degree, was true. Not exactly, and not in every case. But to the extent of a water balloon fight, it was true. I looked out there and saw a group of kids playing and fighting with their brothers and sisters, not a group of miniature nations locked in battle.

An image flashed before my mind's eye: two young men, each with a pistol aimed at the other's head. The scene was beautiful and terrifying at the same time. I opened my eyes. Everything was dark save the streetlight outside. All the noise downstairs had stopped. I rolled to my side and tried to sleep. I had a lot of catching up to do tomorrow for work. Of course, why would I sleep peacefully this week?

* * *

_Yes, we're headed into more flashbacks. I have one written up but there's another one I want to do before it._


	9. Chapter 9

_Just tweaked chapter 6 after realizing Vermont wasn't a colony. (and chapter 8 needed fixing: it was inexcusably bad in grammar and fluidity) *sighs* Okay, OCD time over. Read._

* * *

_"Geez, the things people do in wars," I said to myself. I had just gotten back from negotiating with France over the aquisition of his chunk of the continent (well, south of Canadia, anyway). He was selling it to pay back some war debt (and the middle of North America isn't known for it's taxable citizens). Plus, I saw it as getting France out of the area (and getting a port out of New Orleans). I called it the Louisiana Purchase: not sure if by calling it after France's king I was trying to preserve the history of his ownership, or make a total mockery of it. Either way, that's what I called it. _

_Most nations wouldn't want more little nations to pop up out of their territory, unless it was already there when they arrived. I guess that's just one more way I was different from them all! I jokingly called this "expecting" when I aquired a new chunk of land._

_I expected every one of the kids to be excited about getting new little brothers out of this. Well, that didn't work. A few of them even said that there shouldn't have been a Louisiana Purchase because there was nothing in the "rules" that said I could buy the land. _

_"Well, we have it, we're exploring it, and people will settle it. And they will still be citizens because they're still on my land. And they'll all get added as they come, just like you were."_

_Sometimes, a bad guy needs playing. No one was upset about the new kids, they just thought we were overstepping bounds by having them._

_"There's nothing that says I can't!" was the best arguement I had._

* * *

_Before the days when everything fell to pieces, I had become family to thirty-five children. I had lost a few, as well...a few kids showed their interest in being states, but they fell by the wayside, reverted back. Moved on with life and eventually died. I wondered if that would happen if I ever lost control of my own country. I shook the thought out of my head. I wouldn't let that happen. Not to more of them._

_I had a bunch that were born from that purchase from France. Additionally, a Mexico derivative who called himself Texas had tried to make it as his own country, but wound up joining us instead, number twenty-eight. _

_A few existed as territories. One I noticed in particular was a small girl that Virginia had adopted as a little sister. No one wanted another Virginia running around, but no one was vocal about it (except the Carolinas, because they had some kind of death wish)._

_So, by the time everything went to hell, there were thirty-seven of us, myself included. I don't know what happened still, exactly. Something about the fact that a presidential candidate was running on abolishing our slavery laws. I was okay with it (of course, I had little say in the matter once the boss said something). Not all the kids were._

_"Really. Does he think he's going to get elected with a campaign like that?" Texas complained, slamming the newspaper down on the counter. Georgia and New Jersey held it up to read together, Maine over their shoulder._

_"Yeah, really," Georgia agreed. New Jersey looked at her like he was seeing his sister for the first time._

_"What do you mean, really? We're past this! We don't need this anymore!"_

_"Maybe _you_ don't," said South Carolina across the table, "but they run our economy. We're screwed without them."_

_"Maybe if you'd industrialize..." said Connecticut, sounding bored with the arguement. _

_"Then where would you factory-dwellers get all your material?" Virginia snapped back._

_I sighed. There was no pleasing these kids. This was their biggest arguement of late. It got to the point that they literally took a pen and drew a line across the map, marking where the slave-holding south seperated from the "free" north. They called that the Missouri Compromise (which Missouri wasn't too thrilled about). It was funny, because when the time came for the actual breakage, we, the Union, kept California, though her land extended far below their compromise line._

_"Easy, we import," Connecticut answered._

_"Brilliant: let's increase our dependence on foreign material. I didn't go through the damn Revolution so we could depend on others to keep our economy from falling apart!" Virginia yelled, standing, her face going into the dangerous end of the color spectrum._

_"This has nothing to do with dependence. Rather, let's try interdependence."_

_"Your ideas will never work," was Florida's response._

_Georgia passed the paper over to South Carolina's outstretched hand. She read the paper, her eyes becoming blurs. "Yeah...no. I'm not living under this. If he's elected, I'm leaving."_

_"Can you do that?" New York asked in disbelief._

_"I don't know. Virginia, does it say I can't?"_

_"Am I seriously the only one who read the cursed document?"_

_"Look," I said, stepping in. "No one's leaving. Okay? We're all in this together, right?"_

_I got about twelve angry stares._

_"Not if this goes through," Texas finally said, breaking the deafening silence. "My economy will fail without them. I'm not letting this happen. I know a fella, he's got a plan for what to do if this happens."_

_"You won't even give it a try?" said Kentucky, almost challenging his brother._

_"I've run myself once. I can do it again."_

_"The reason you're here is because you _couldn't_ run yourself," New York pointed out from the corner. He looked up, knives in his eyes, to meet an identical stare coming from the once Republic of Texas. Ask why these two got along worst out of all the children, none could tell you, and they'll insist they get along just fine._

_"Maybe you should give it a try, big shot. It's a bit more difficult than it looks."_

_"So why would you want to leave? If it's so hard?"_

_I joined a few of the children in shaking my head. These two were at it more than any of them. The arguements were becoming annoying. What was worse seemed to be that the rest of their siblings seemed to be taking sides. There was a clear divide along the 36" 30. What happened to our being united?_

_The election season was rough. The results came in clear, though: Lincoln, 180; Breckinridge, 72; Bell, 39; Douglas, 12. We had our sixteenth president that November sixth, 1860._

_Less than two months later, December twentieth, our first state left the Union._

* * *

_Why am I so much better at flashback form than realtime? Gah. Well, more history next time: I've been wanting to get to this part for a while. And about the "other" states, that died, I didn't make that up, that part is real. Google them; I thought it would detract from the story if I further mentioned the characters who would never show up._


	10. Chapter 10

_Good Lord, I didn't expect it to get this long. Can anyone tell I was_ really_ looking forward to the Civil War flashbacks?_

* * *

_I thought Texas would be first, with his need for nationalism and independance, his humiliation at having to join another country with his. I could have seen it coming if perhaps Virginia broke off, needing her space and not having the patience to deal with not only a family but now a government she neither agreed with or could stand. Perhaps even New York, thinking that perhaps they'd back off the campaign promises in efforts to keep the Union together. But if you actually had me guess who would have gone first, I would never have fathomed it to be South Carolina._

_She handed me a note and left. I can't remember all that it said, but I remember the message, loud and clear. She left her siblings, leaving the message behind that said, "Come with me if you want, but I want nothing to do with you if you don't." And the impression she meant it. She didn't even look at her sisters as she left the house, off to make her own mind and way._

_Less than two weeks passed before three of my sons stood before me - Mississippi January ninth, Florida the next day, and Alabama the day after. Each one said things similar to South Carolina's note: that the new administration was going to wreck the economy, intrude upon their sovereignty as states, and that they just didn't want to stand for it anymore._

_"Alright," I said to the three: in light of them all leaving around the same time, Mississippi decided to just hang around for the two days following until his brothers joined him to follow their sister to her new country (I guess they co-conspired). "There seems to be some problems here surrounding the security of some states in their rights. How do you suggest we fix this so no one leaves?"_

_"Easy," said Georgia. "Impeach the idiot. Take him out of office so he can't do this to us." I think we were all a little surprised to hear that from our fairly-polite Georgia._

_"You can't say that, Georgia!" New Jersey said, getting to his feet. "We picked him fairly, through the process we've used for almost eighty years! He's the new boss and he isn't doing anything wrong! Nothing says the feds can't do that!"_

_The fifth state to leave, unsurprisingly, was Georgia._

_Louisiana left sixth, and his brother Texas - who I expected to leave long before he did - was the seventh. Texas, armed with all sorts of ideas for a nation, took the leadership role away from his adopted sister, who from what I saw had no problem letting him, but I noticed she was always at his right hand._

_Of course, though hate each other they say they did, the newly-dubbed Confederate states couldn't just stay away and leave well enough alone. No. In the same vein, the Union states couldn't stay away from the Confederacy either. The Confederate states called the Union twenty-eight idiots who had no idea how an economy worked. The Union comeback was that the Confederates were a bunch of rogues who were denying a whole group of people their "unalienable rights," for no reason other than the income. _

_What did I see? Sibling rivalry at its finest. And...something which, for the first time, I didn't know how to handle. I had gone head-to-head with other nations before. But everytime I tried to get involved in this, I would be overstepping my bounds somehow. Especially since I had "no jurisdiction" over them anymore._

_I still regarded them as my children, no matter how hard they tried to push me away. I never forced myself on them: that was the job of their northern siblings. They didn't call this "the war between the states" for nothing. But I never recognized them as a separate nation: they were simply...going through a phase._

_Unfortunately, not all other nations saw it as such. From what I'd heard in my southern ventures, they were attempting diplomatic relations with all sorts of European nations. France and Britain were getting calls for recognition from the south: even Austria and Prussia were considering recognizing them. And Mexico down south, who had cut every diplomatic tie with me since annexing Texas, was considering opening trade along their shared border with the Confederacy._

Why would you think of helping them in this illusion that they're somehow separate from us? _I included in a letter to my former friend. I was _not _pleased with the damn Brit trying to interfere with my government and politics. I made it clear that if he supported them, he'd pretty much secure a spot on my enemy list._

_He wrote back: _So, apparently you're the only one in the world allowed to declare a secession? I won't hear more of this; I'm dealing with them, not you.

_He was such an ass sometimes._

* * *

_I watched a lot of relationships deteriorate during this war. Mine with my children was the one that hit me hardest personally. I was becoming distanced from them. And they couldn't care less. __But as I said above, I never stopped for one second thinking they were my children. I put a lot of effort into making sure we as a Union didn't completely alienate them, though it was clearly what they desired. _

_There were three others that I watched completely derail. The first was the most obvious: Texas and New York. The two always seemed like they hated each other, but I always believed their opposing viewpoints kept things from getting too boring and honestly gave the two a reason to live. It went from what I thought was a rivalry and a difference of opinions turned into serious arguements and soon it got physical. I had no idea what I could possibly do to stop them. Texas wouldn't listen, and after a while, neither did New York. Or any of them, for that matter._

_Each of them clung more tightly to their guns than all their siblings combined. Shots were actually fired, as they put it, before the real fighting began. I knew there were going to be problems with differences in opinion, but I didn't actually think it would come to raining bullets._

_Everything came sort of to a crescendo at Fort Sumter in spring of '61. South Carolina came back with demands that I abandon my military base near her capital of Charleston. She said that my military didn't belong in her country. Of course, she didn't have her own country. So, I naturally refused to move my soldiers._

_This was the beginning of the American Civil War. What made it worse, was that the so-called Confederates won the battle. _

_Our north was not pleased with it, but the ones on the border were starting to sway in their loyalties a bit. Two more relationships met their climax and resolution at the battle's after math. Both between sets of formerly-close sisters, who we all thought were...ah, my attempt at a meaningful lead-in isn't working, so maybe I should just explain instead._

* * *

_After the Battle at Fort Sumter, four of the border states whose loyalty to the Union was faltering made their final decisions. We'll begin with the eighth state to leave: Virginia._

_Honestly, I was surprised she didn't leave sooner. As seemed to be their ritual, the seven southern siblings came to retrieve their two new ones, Virginia and her western region. I, once again forced to stand to the side, noticed a peculiar look about the little girl. As her older siblings approached, she kept casting her glances around to them, to Virginia, to the Union behind her, and back to the Confederates. She seemed strange...I had never seen the child make a decision about anything, but if I had to guess, she just might have been._

_Texas and South Carolina headed the pack as they approached Virginia and West in the no-man's-land (aka, the middle of the room). Upon seeing her twin sister, North Carolina made to move forward; New York flung his arm in front of her._

_"No," he muttered, making sure the Confederates couldn't hear. "I'm not losing another of you today." He never noticed that North put on her brave face for these and for battle, but always came back with us, letting her anxiety and emotion overtake her and cried. I never saw how South acted, but from the way they acted before and since, I wasn't sure either was truely capable of functioning properly without the other. I thought the seperation of the colony of Carolina way back when would've killed them. She broke her empty gaze from the smaller sister country and instead threw the sharpest knives from her eyes at her brother._

_"Alright," called Texas (for no reason; the Virginias were five feet away). "You're ready to join up?"_

_"Indeed we are," Virginia said, straightening her spine and taking her little sister's arm. Maryland near me mangaged to turn a laugh into a cough. _

_Virginia stepped forward. West kept looking back at her union brothers and then just stopped dead, letting her wrist slide out of her sister's grip. Said sister turned around upon realizing she was no longer leading a smaller state._

_"West, we're going." She gestured to the Confederate side of the room. West just stared at her a few more moments, Virginia becoming more visibly aggrivated by the second. Then:_

_"No."_

_Even Texas looked afraid for the girl. Every breath in the room was held._

_"What do you mean, no?" The usually dangerous voice of Virginia had something new in it…perhaps a hint of bewilderment?_

_"No. I'm staying here. I like what they say better." Next to me, I heard Maryland breathe, "Little West, now's a good time to shut that mouth." "We've already done away with ours on the Northwest, and we're moving toward more industry. We have coal."_

_Virginia tried to laugh. "What do you plan on doing? You're going to become your own state or something? Just up and claim your lands and move to _their _side?" she said mockingly, derisively. West gave a scowl to rival her sister's._

_"I _will_ be my own state." _

_Her eyes widened. She looked right into the little girl's own brown orbs, just two shades off her own, and saw her resolve._

_"You can't do that."_

_"You can sececeed from us," she said, stumbling over the word _secede_, "I can sececeed from you."_

_Virginia stepped back, her eyes searching for the one piece of evidence that would alert her to the child joking with her. All she saw was West's resolve. Virginia had finally grasped the concept: West was not joining her. She closed her eyes, apparent she was about to cry. She opened them, the held-back tears shining in her squirrel-colored eyes as she raised her hand against the child and and advanced._

_She was greeted halfway there by New York, handgun pointed at his sister's face. Texas in the background raised his; Alabama and Mississippi grabbed at his arm to make it come down. Only blinking once and not missing a beat after, Virginia swatted the weapon away without effort and scathingly replied to the move, "Put the toy away, York: we both know you don't have it in you to pull the trigger." He still backed up to shield his youngest sister from the beast before him._

_"You have no right to tell her she can't stay. You aren't her complete overlord. You can't tell her against what she wants to do."_

_The room was packed wall-to-wall with a crushing silence._

_"You filthy hypocrite." Virginia said flatly. "Don't you think I didn't hear what you just said to North Carolina. 'No. I'm not losing another of you today'." North Carolina looked visibly ill for some reason. "When it's _your _cause," she said, raising her voice (in both volume _and_ pitch) and stepping closer, "_it's perfectly okay_!"_

_"Virginia," South Carolina said in a voice we'd never hear so small again. "We came to collect you, let's just go. We can handle York 'n' North 'n' whoever else needs handlin' later."_

_As was expected, Virginia ignored her._

_"You Yanks are somethin' aren't you?" Having no other weapon she brought her finger to New York's face as though to scold. "Say whatever you like, as long as it favors you." She turned her full, frightening attention to her younger sister, who was trying very hard to look like she wasn't cowering behind her older brother. "Nice to see that after all the work I put into you, you choose to align yourself with the likes of them!" she shouted._

_"Will you calm down and just leave, Virginia?" North Carolina dared say. Virginia, who really was trying to be civil under all she was experiencing, unleashed all her fury on her sister._

_"_Don't even pretend you don't see why! _You know exactly how this feels: to want so badly to destroy it and not have any means in your power to make it happen!"_

_North stepped forward, right into her sister's face. "I never wanted to destroy her."_

_"No...you weak fool, you wouldn't raise a hand against them if they invaded and killed you!"_

_"Who else stayed out of Sumter, Vir-?"_

_Virginia slapped North Carolina across the face. Both sides erupted over the move. Maybe now was a good time to... Maybe not, as when I advanced, Virginia knocked the weapon out of New York's outstretched arm and picked it up, aiming at me._

_"Don't you even get involved here! Don't you dare!" she shrieked. "You're nothing but a figurehead!" She made no attempt to stow her tears now. "And, you're _just like HER_, or can't you see it through those stupid glasses?" She threw the handgun to the ground. Everyone backed away. The deafening silence was back. And what should break it but a small uttering of a simple phrase._

_"Big sister..."_

_Virginia looked up, red-eyed, to her former charge. West wasn't yet fully grown: she didn't realize that because she was the fuel for this fight, that she really needed to get out and stay out._

_"Never again." Virginia's voice went low and angry, not unlike that of a cat's snarl. "I _never_ want to hear that phrase again, least of all from you! You're no sister of mine, less so then those traitors of the north!"_

_"_We_, traitors!?" Connecticut questioned. "Now, wait!"_

_"_You're_ the ones who betrayed _us_, remember?" Massachusetts pointed out._

_"How so?" Alabama said, arms folded, stepping forward. "You knew these laws would kill our economy, and you voted for the bastard anyway!"_

Please stop them, somebody, _I pleaded in my head._

_"As far as I see it, there's no betrayal, just one side versus another," Kansas, a slave-holding state who would surprisingly stick to the Union, piped up. _

_"Oh, who asked you, Kansas?" Ohio and Indiana yelled at once._

_Maryland crouched down next to a retreating West Virginia. "Welcome to statehood, little sister," she whispered so only she and West (and consequently me) could hear her. She then added sarcastically, "Couldn't have picked a better time."_

_"Why don't you leave Kansas alone? Besides, it's clear he's coming with us later," Louisiana said._

_"Actually, I have no intention of leaving."_

_"What? But - I thought you saw it our way!"_

_"I do. Doesn't mean I have to join you. Have fun over there."_

_"Kansas, grow a f*cking backbone," New Jersey called over the arguement._

_"And you'll still be under someone," Georgia was saying against Virginia, who she apparently worried was going to try to upset their hierarchy. "Texas won't give up the leadership role on your say-so."_

_"Yeah, well we'll see what happens when we meet at Richmond." _

_"Idiot," Texas said loudly, causing most of the fighting to die down slightly. "We won't meet at Richmond, we meet in Montgomery."_

_Virginia turned to face him, her visage returned to stone. "Wait until the warm season."_

_"No way!" yelled Alabama. He was a fairly new, young state, so having an important job like holding the meetings at his place gave him a sense that he was needed for something. "I've been the capital since the beginning! You can't just take it!"_

_"Why don't you let someone more experienced handle the big jobs, Alabama?" Virginia snapped._

_"Keep talking sh*t like that, and we'll just leave you with the Union!" Texas growled. "We don' need tha' kinda fightin' 'twixt us when we got them Union swine to deal with!"_

_"Leave me, then. I'll make my own nation!"_

_"No one's making their own nations!" I yelled._

_"Lina made hers! Why don't we all just let damn Virginia fend for herself?" Florida yelled. "Block trade and diplomacy -"_

_"If Europe recognizes you, they'll recognize me! That's where trade will happen!"_

_"In case you haven't noticed, our recognition by Europe is either circumstantial or non-existant!" argued Texas._

_I put my face in my hands and pushed off from the wall, getting fully to my feet. I strode past the fight unnoticed until the door behind me slammed. The voices died almost immediately. _

_"Well," said a boy's voice. "We'll get going an' see y'all on the battlefield." What must've been sixteen feet made their way to the opposite door and departed. I reeentered. The remaining twenty-eight looked confused by the whole thing._

_"Well, if you're going to be a state, you have some paperwork to do, West." Maryland let her smallest sister out the door past me, completely disregarding my presence. The rest of them started to dissipate awkwardly, not knowing which way to look._

_New York approached North Carolina in the center, still struck dumb by sister Virginia's words. _

_"North...about..."_

_"Don't speak. This time next month you'll be good as dead to me." She made her way to the door, head still hung. New York closed his eyes, knowing exactly where he made his mistake._

_The last three to leave were Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee. These 11, including with them Kentucky and Missouri who never actually left, gathered themselves under the "stars and bars", which eventually became a blue spangled X on red. So, in response to them taking thirteen stars..._

* * *

_"And, done," Maryland announced later that summer, finishing her and Ohio's secret sewing project. She held up a small version of our flag, the blue rectangle blazened with twenty-three white stars. "Our new banner," she explained to her brothers, who were all trying to find what she'd done differently._

_"I don't get it," New Jersey finally said._

_"You don't? See," Ohio said, pointing to one of the stars. "There's West Virginia."_

_"Why that one?" Vermont asked._

_"There's less stars than before," Connecticut said._

_"Well, yeah, there's less states, stupid," Massachusetts chided._

_"Put them back, Maryland."_

_All twelve assembled turned to look at me, a hard gaze behind my specs._

_"Look, Pa," Rhode Island said, "let's be reasonable. There are deaths and stuff happening. They don't want to come back."_

_"I don't care. We're winning this war and they _will_ come back."_

_"Pa," New York stepped in. "I get it. They're your children. You want them together." He came closer and said under his breath, "I want my brothers to come home, too." Then he straightened, stepping back into his leadership role. "But you can't force them with words, and at this rate bullets aren't working either."_

_"Bullets can only work if they're shot, York," Delaware called. New York turned a deep shade of red. He hadn't been able yet to shoot at his siblings, true to Virginia's taunts. I'm sure he still remembered her words. _

_"We can negotiate all we want, and let our men die and theirs," he forced himself to go on, "but the fact of the matter is that there will wind up being three nations on this continent."_

_"Four," Delaware called again._

_"And why should we represent on _our_ banner those who don't want to do with us?"_

_I looked right at him. "I guess you don't want them back as badly as I hoped."_

_"Hey, Maryland, why are there only twenty-three stars on this thing?" Indiana asked._

_"There were thirty-five of us. They took thirteen, and we kept West Virginia. Thirty-five minus thirteen plus one equals twenty-three," Maryland explained._

_"There will be thirty-six on there by tonight," I said._

_New Hampshire frowned. "There are eleven of them."_

_"Yeah, but they claimed thirteen."_

_"We're still here!" Missouri yelled._

_"Missouri, you're so far away from us in the south that you may as well just join them," Ohio said flatly._

_"_No one else is joining the Confederacy_!" New York yelled at the top of his voice._

_"That's like saying since Oregon and California are so far away, and especially since California's south, neither of them belong here either!"_

_"CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?" New York screamed, finally getting the attention of the gathering before him. "No one's leaving! Everyone belongs! And we're getting them back! Are we clear? Maryland, put the damn stars back on the flag."_

_"Dear God, it's just a model," she said, clear exasperation in her voice._

_"I shouldn't have to keep them all together," New York mused, watching them all go their ways. "That's supposed to be _your_ job."_

_"Hey. No one wants me involved, remember?" I said. "They don't call this 'the war between the states' for nothing. And what's wrong? You're doing a good job of it. No wonder Delaware and Penn thought you fancied yourself higher than them." _

_I left the bewildered young man to his thoughts and went out for a walk._

* * *

_Wow, that was a lot of words. Okay, next time, real world._


	11. Chapter 11

_Yay, back to the real world! Now we meet some friends, some family, and some other memories. Plus, a few pieces of the past that won't be forgotten so easily. And then I think we're getting toward the resolution stages. (This is a sort of useless chapter; I run out of segues and then the collective chapter looks like crap.)_

* * *

_No...no...don't even go there..._

My eyes flew open. I forced myself awake. I couldn't stand to know what was coming next. The room spun slowly and I tried to sit up, but that made it worse.

_Past...but they don't seem to be affected at all..._

I hated watching the actual battles. It wouldn't seem like it, but wartime actually made me sick. I was so used to it, though, I wasn't as affected anymore. But it was something else to watch them fight...an idea in the form of a child...only able to be killed by another idea...it gave me the sense of fragility and I hated it. I wouldn't accept it.

There was a soft knock at the bedroom door. I opened it a crack. Hawaii was standing there.

"Oh, morning," I said, stifling a yawn as the room came to a halt.

"Hi. We have visitors."

"Oh. Well, you can let them in."

"Yeah..." she went on. "That's most of the problem."

* * *

"Ha!" yelled South Carolina as I came down the stairs. "Just like the old days, right?"

I came down to a pile of children at the front door. They were yelling at something and all trying to get a hand in the center. I couldn't tell where one ended and another began.

"You're all taking it like such a game," Massachusetts said, standing off to the side, unlike his twelve oldest siblings. "It's not funny. If you're going to terrorize someone, you have to do it properly."

"That's not something you should be saying!" shouted New York, trapped between two of his sisters and whatever was at the core of the pile. The boys' eyes met sharply.

"Uh, what's going on?" I said to Hawaii following me downstairs.

"I think they said something about preventing an invasion."

"Is it a robber or something?"

"No." I turned to Massachusetts. "For a lack of a better term, one could call this a 'family reunion'."

Something clicked in the cogs in my brain.

"Okay, kids, whoever's under there, get off," I said firmly, shooing the mass of teenagers off the core, which turned out to be familiar and blond.

"Hey, bro. I thought you said you weren't coming!" I said, smiling at the thick-browed face who looked up to mine. The man got to his feet.

"I thought you said you had children. Not little warmongering freaks!"

"Instigation!" yelled North Carolina.

"You're the ones who're instigating!"

"Okay, okay, everyone, both sides, _shhh," _I said, a hand on the Brit and one held out to the collective colonies. "This isn't war...it's a visit. Nothing wrong here. Go fight elsewhere. Preferably outside." All except Massachusetts and a small brown-haired kid left.

"What the bloody hell was that about?"

"See what I've had to put up with all week?" I said to him.

"And I'm not here for you. I came over here to see your brother, and then he said he was going off to see a friend before coming back here. I foolishly agreed to bring his thirteen miscreants over here, only to be greeted like that!"

"So, you're leaving?"

"Well, I'm already here, so I may as well wait to see if he comes back." Sure. I hid my smile at finally seeing someone remotely sane.

* * *

"And I thought my brothers and I didn't get along..." he said.

"Oh, that's a game. You should see an actual fight." He was staring out the window. Each time I thought of any of them now, I couldn't manage to repress the war memories anymore. I shook my head.

"Alright, I give up. Where did you put your energy?" Three...two...one...

"Oh, me?"

"Yes, you."

"Oh. Well, I just got up."

"It looks more like you haven't slept at all." He was staring at me now. I reached for my coffee pot.

"Here's the energy. Good ol' caffeine." He wouldn't stop. "I'm fine." Still wouldn't, though I think he blinked. "What? Why do you care?"

"It's just...not right." I joined him at the window.

"I've slept. Just...not well."

"Nightmares?"

"Flashbacks. What's worse, they're flashbacks I didn't know I had. Those kids," I said, pointing at them in the yard, "have as dark a past as any of us. It only shows if you look deep into their eyes. I can't help but wonder...how can they be so...cheerful? Playful with each other?"

A moment of silence was broken by, "Because life goes on. We have a past, but here we are now. They have to get past it, move beyond what once was and focus on what is. At least on the surface. It...never fully goes away. That's what make these alliances difficult. You may have to literally stab in the back a nation you once considered your brother. I'm sure they saw it."

"Stop. I had to watch that last night."

He obliged. "So, when's Canadia supposed to pick up his kids?"

"He said he and they were invited. I believe I recall _both _of you mentioning that."

"He's coming on Saturday."

"Today _is_ Saturday, you twit."

I didn't answer. My mind was dropping a giant F-bomb, but I tried very hard to keep the detonation contained. I watched them outside. They were joined by a few I didn't recognize, but seemed to be welcoming them just fine. I guess it was because they were cousins. I never had cousins, so I don't know what they're like. Maybe like siblings, just with less blood in common.

"How do cousins get along?" I asked out of nowhere.

"Hm? Well, I'd guess they get along as well or as poorly as brothers. It's all circumstantial. It depends on the person."

Silence fell again. I had a question that nagged at the back of my head, moving its way forward at high velocity.

"Do you think they remember it?"

"What?"

"Their...rivalry." Our eyes met briefly as I tried to put what I meant into the stare. He broke contact.

"I'm sure they do."

"Do you?"

"Not really. They were your problem, remember?"

"Did you want coffee?"

"Not particularly." He glanced at my arm. "Hey, when did that happen?"

"Hm?" He pointed at a scar on my shoulder. "Oh...a few years ago."

"I see."

"I don't like showing it off...is why you wouldn't have seen it before."

"Makes perfect sense. Where else do you have scars like that?"

"Kind of a personal question, don't you think?" I asked, feeling a bit red. Not that they were anywhere inappropriate, but just that I didn't want to discuss all the places that I'd been hit over the years.

"Hey," I said after a few seconds' silence, a second random question popping up. He looked back at me. "Do...do you think they...?"

"What?" He said. I tilted my head to my left. "Oh. Most likely. It would make sense, wouldn't it." It was a final statement, not a question. I looked at my mug of coffee. I decided I didn't want or need it (and it was cold), so I set it down and walked away.

* * *

Things around here started settling down around ten. A bunch of the younger ones had passed out. Canada came over late; said he was busy all day. The split lip showed it. I don't know what the problem was, but it wasn't mine.

I sat outside, the porch light on. The door slid open. A few of the kids came out.

"Okay, now," one said. "It's two points to get it from one side to the other. No face shots. And the first one to wake anyone loses."

"Hello."

All of them jumped and turned to face me.

"You're still at this? For the love of...don't you ever sleep?"

"When we're tired," said...Vermont, I think.

"Often not till way past it!" stated Massachusetts proudly, Connecticut and Delaware laughing behind him.

"Why don't you just cut the fights out?"

"It's not a fight; it's a game," South Carolina said defiantly.

"Why do you get so nervous when you see us together?" New Jersey added.

I looked from one face to another. A lot of them were gathered...everyone except a few plains and the western regions. I had an answer. It was a question, but at the same time an answer.

"How can you forget like that? You know damn well what I think when I see you together!"

Every face became like rock. No eye moved from my visage. I went around and made eye contact with every set of orbs I could.

"How could you think for a second we can forget anything?" Virginia asked.

"Unlike you, becoming such a big shot in the world, we've basically been here by ourselves, having no one to deal with but each other," said Kansas.

"I didn't mean about each other," I said defensively, "I -"

"Oh, we all know what you meant. And we can't forget any of those either." I have no idea which boy said that.

"You remember everything?"

"Well, the important stuff. Not like, oh, say, what Delaware ate for breakfast on the third June, 1854, for example," Ohio said.

"But we remember plenty," Massahusetts said. "Often...it seems like we remember too much."

"And actually, history has a way of never letting us forget. You'll see it better in the light."

* * *

We went inside. A majority of the kids were awake, so there was actually space devoid of sleeping states. Virginia started. She pointed to a spot on her right knee. "This is a stupid one. Where an entire chunk of my land was taken from me."

"Yeah... I don't get that one either..." said Georgia slowly.

"I think she's being overly-dramatic and just coincidentally skinned her knee as she left," Connecticut sneered.

"Oh? Well, if that's too dramatic," Virginia said nastily, pulling the collar of her shirt down to reveal a gash in her chest by her shoulder. "This is pretty recent. Guess from what."

"You have scars from _that_ too?" I asked. I had always been okay with my scar, but I hated seeing it on a young girl.

"All three of us hit do. The others' are more...psychological. Hey, Penn. Show 'n' tell."

He twisted his leg into the light. His scar was more crater-shaped. He looked back up at his brother. "York, your turn."

"I'm not showing."

"They're not to be ashamed of."

"They aren't? These scars are dead people! Of course you can wear _yours_ like a badge of honor, Penn, yours was from an act of heroism! What are mine? Just large and ugly...signs I couldn't protect myself or anyone else."

"You can still show them. It's not a matter of pride. We're just making sure _he _knows we don't forget," said Virginia.

"I won't."

"Does he even have them?" I asked, rather more loudly than I wanted to.

"Yeah. He's just been hiding them," said Illinois. "Why else do you think he's been wearing sleeves all week?"

"For years, actually, in one form or another," Michigan added.

I honestly hadn't noticed.

"Fine! Fine! Just get your hands off!" New York was yelling as both Carolinas had him pinned and were trying to reveal the wounds. "Here." One sleeve up: the whole forearm was dark. Then he rolled up the other to reveal an identical sight.

"I suppose, you being bigger, the mark is smaller?" I unconsciously rubbed my shoulder.

"Yeah, but I carry bits of _all_ your scars. Like one on my back: 1942 sound familiar?"

"Oh. It can't look like Hawaii's. Show him," Delaware prompted his sister. She pulled her long dark hair over one shoulder and pulled her shirt up her back. Another large scar took up almost the whole surface.

"But hers is healing well these days," Kansas said. "Oh, here's one from the Civil War!" He showed off a scratch up his side. "Wouldn't stop for sh*t for days, no joke. And I still don't know what I did! I still think it was all Missouri!"

"No," Missouri said in defense of himself. "You were supposed to choose which side you wanted to be on. I just came to persuade you. And if Virginia could keep her damn abolitionists to herself -"

"Hey, I didn't want him, either!" Virginia yelled in retort.

"Hey! Enough of this!" I yelled. Every mouth shut.

"Pa, you're being louder than us," Delaware said. "You probably just lost."

"Lost?" I asked, more than a bit confused. "Lost what?"

"The game," South Carolina said. Maryland hung her head.

"Damn it, Lina..."

"What?" the troll state said. "I meant the game Indiana was explaining earlier."

"I don't care about your game!" I yelled as North Carolina started engulfing her twin with Maryland's help. "I don't want you playing these games! If it gets physical -"

"Haven't you ever played a game with each other?" I stared at Florida. He made a face. "If that's how it is, I don't want to be my own nation. Too damn boring and everything has a repercussion."

"Besides: we aren't usually like this. This is something we do every year," explained Georgia. "We see the memory as something that should never have happened, but we acknowledge it. We still celebrate it. It made us what we are today. Surely, having seen so much war, you would know that. We celebrate the lives of our fallen, and how far we've come together as a result."

"No matter how loudly we were kicking and screaming," said South Carolina, smiling awkwardly. Arkansas rolled his eyes.

"Okay, that wasn't jokeworthy, Lina, that was hell," scolded Virginia.

"I'm Carol," she said, her smile changing. Her twin elbowed her.

"To hell you are!" Virginia yelled, her brow knitting.

"Bottom line: we remember, we can't forget," New York cut off, his sleeves replaced. "But we can choose to move on. We're the same as you. We have border disputes and laws that don't match. Arguements, but can band together in an instant. I don't know why you think we're different."

"Except election time, York: that time we don't come together, you damn left-winger," called Texas. New York smirked.

"You wait: perhaps you all out-number us, but we've got the numbers _and_ the swing states."

"Ah, election season," Ohio sighed; she was one of the afore-mentioned swingers. "The new civil war."

And everyone who heard her, myself included, knew it was true. And they laughed. For the first time in so long, I found myself properly laughing. Was it because her analogy was funny? Hell yeah, it was! It may have been inappropriate, but the humor came from its truth. The laughter spread as more and more of them retold the joke. Ohio had scoffed at her own joke for a second, but looked utterly confused when her siblings wouldn't stop laughing. It was only made funnier by the shout of an undisclosed source (though I'm sure I knew who it was):

"WILL YOU ALL SHUT UP AND SLEEP?"

Which made them laugh so hard, they became near silent.

"Okay," Illinois choked out. "Who lost?"

"I nominate Ohio, 'cause she started it!" yelled Missouri, thrusting his hand in the air.

And there they separated, leaving Ohio just as confused as she was before.

* * *

_Missouri's reference to Virginia's abolitionists was a man named John Brown, who is credited with starting the conflict called "bleeding Kansas", also the reference to Kansas's scar. Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York reveal their recent scars (recent for a nation) from 9/11/2001. Hawaii's is from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 12/7/1942. One obscure reference and two that may or may not have been obvious._

_Gah. Fluff chapters. I wanted to make the significance of the scars known. They have other scars, but are definitely faded as the linked events fall out of the collective consciousness. Those are the most significant I can think of, without going on and on. And just because I only named five states, don't think that they don't all have them._

_And in case anyone cares, I'm from Ohio. Why'd I tell you that? 'Cause._


	12. Chapter 12 - News

_Hello, everyone: asymmetricalpasta here. I hate saying this, but I sort of ran out of steam on this story, but plenty of other annoying little plots have started popping up, all concerning the states. _

_I'm telling you this so I can basically advertise the sequel to this story: Shared History. It's more one-shots than chapters, though since it's history, they'll be connected someway, however anachronologically (is that a word? is now). So, if you wantto read more on that, I suggest checking out the new story. See you there!_

_(It's highly unlikely, but I may sometime in the future return to "All the Stars". I just can't see it happening right now.)_


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